The next few days…

….. looks windy! We are contemplating heading out today, however after looking at the wind prediction map our window for friendly winds is shrinking! Forecast shows good wind for Tuesday and Wednesday however shows high (30-40 n m/hour) winds inside the 165 n mile line after Wednesday.

Often, nights are gusty and hard to see the waves. Friends of mine are sailing aprox 200 n miles off the coast (directly west of us) presently and chatting with them on garmin inreach they mentioned the increase in gusts at night. We experience this as well 150nmiles out, and we always reefed the main substantially, dropped our big head sail and kept small staysail up. We still sailed at 6nm/hour.

In addition, if your boat changes angles, and it does, the waves will move from pushing you from behind to hitting your beam. In high winds and high wave action this can get dangerous. Another problem is you cannot see in the dark, and solely rely on degree/angle reading on your electronics. It’s unnerving at times.

We could sail out (motor out for 10 n miles) and then return to shore to seek refuge from high winds. Problem is that there are few places between here and San Francisco. It’s a tricky coast with lots of rock and sandbars, which is why sailors don’t stay close to land. In some places, they recommend hiring a pilot to enter harbours because of sandbars and currents.

So our choices are to head past the 165 n miles line in the next 2 days (80 n miles per 24 hours) and stay far out (200 n miles), until Saturday and then start heading south east towards San Diego or Ensenada, or stay put here in Crescent City until high winds has subsided on Saturday morning.

Side note: Crescent City has the highest crime rate in all of the USA, including the Mexican mafia! Crescent City has an interesting history in regards to their local maximum security jail, which connects back to the closing of Alcatraz! Check it out!

This brings some thought… what is this journey about? Is it about just to “get there”? Do I need to experience 30-35 plus winds on this trip? If so, why? Most likely it will be hairy at times and most likely it will be ok, however is this the experience I want to have?

I’m here to thoroughly enjoy this amazing journey I’ve embarked on!